The invention relates to factory/manufacturing processes, and more particularly to a system and method for the collection of data with a view to workflow planning and fault diagnosis.
With the advent of modern lean manufacturing methods, information processing systems, and the Internet, factories or manufacturing facilities are increasingly gaining the ability to acquire, process, and utilize workflow information. For example, most current printshops consist of isolated machines that do not interface well with internal computer systems. Companies often organize these machines in patterns and arrays within a factory workspace that are not optimal from an efficiency and cost standpoint. For instance, the machines require operators to load/unload jobs, monitor job progress, pass jobs on to a next station, and commence a new job. In-between each of the steps, each job is commonly stored in storage areas awaiting the next step of the job. An experienced manager plans and schedules each machine. Typically, a job card that specifies the steps needed to complete the job, the steps already completed, and the order of the steps, accompanies the job. An operator manually adds the data regarding job completion to a job card, or sometimes simply holds such information in his or her memory for a period.
A disadvantage of conventional printshops is that excess inventories caused by buildups between job steps increase overall job costs. The lack of real time information concerning the contemporaneous state of the machines and the jobs leads to less efficient plant utilization, and hence lower productivity. Companies cannot easily split large jobs into more efficient smaller job lots because of the difficulty in tracking the more numerous smaller job lots. If a mistake occurs, the typical result is to discard an entire job lot. The larger the job lot size, the greater the potential for substantially more waste.
Companies often organize conventional printshops in a manner that is functionally independent of the print job complexity, the print job mix, and the total volume of print jobs passing through the system. Most commonly, companies group equipment together on a factory floor that is somewhat related. This results in a grouping of all printing equipment in a single locale. Accordingly, all finishing equipment is in a separate single locale. In other words, conventional printshops typically organize resources into separate departments, each department corresponding to a particular process or operation performed in completing a print job.
When a specific print job arrives, the print job sequentially passes through each department. Once a first department completely processes the print job, the print job enters a queue for the next department. The queue is sometimes in the form of a temporary storage facility. This process continues until the print job makes its way through each department.
For the foregoing reasons, there exists in the art a need for a system and method for collecting data to analyze workflow and diagnose potential problems and machine faults within a production/manufacturing process, such as a printshop.
In accordance with the present invention, a system for collecting data is provided having at least one acoustic sensor that is placed within a workspace for sensing acoustic signals, such as sound or vibrations, associated with at least one machine operating in the workspace, and at least one tag associated with a particular job. The tag indicates the contemporaneous status of tasks relating to the job. The system also includes a processor in communication with each acoustic sensor and tag for receiving data relating to acoustic and task status.
In a common arrangement, there is a plurality of machines located within the workspace area. There is a plurality of acoustic sensors placed in a specified array throughout the workspace. Additionally, there is at least one tag placed in association with each of the plurality of jobs being processed through the workspace.
Each of the sensors can take the form of a microphone, with a wired or wireless connection to the processor. The tag can be a passive RF tag, an active tag, infrared tag, or bar code. In order to read the particular form of tag, a corresponding tag reader is placed within the workspace. The tag reader reads data provided by each tag and communicates the data to the processor. The tag can also be a sonic tag readable by each of the acoustic sensors within the work place.
The processor can be in the form of a computing apparatus that is connected by a telephone line or by a wireless connection to a computer network. The computer network can be a local area network and/or the Internet.